Microsoft Nears No. 2 Spot in U.S. Internet Search Market as Yahoo Slips
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) came close to beating out Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) for second place in the U.S. Internet search market last month after the company’s Bing service made gains on other sites, according to ComScore Inc. (SCOR)
Microsoft, the world’s largest software company, accounted for 15 percent of U.S. Internet queries in November, up from 14.8 percent the previous month, ComScore said. Yahoo had 15.1 percent, down from 15.2 percent. Google’s share fell to 65.4 percent from 65.6 percent.
Seeking to compete better with Google, Microsoft has been adding features to its search engine, including integration with social-networking service Facebook Inc. to offer friends’ input on the best query results. Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft also provides technology to power Yahoo’s search service under a 10-year agreement between the companies, which are trying to attract more marketers to buy advertising on query-results pages.
Google (GOOG), based in Mountain View, California, may control 76 percent of the U.S. market for search-based ads this year, according to EMarketer Inc. in New York. Sunnyvale, California- based Yahoo may get 7.9 percent, and Microsoft may have 8 percent.
Google rose 0.2 percent to $619.54 at 4 p.m. New York time. Microsoft fell 0.1 percent to $25.56 while Yahoo rose 0.9 percent to $15.16.
To contact the reporters on this story: Brian Womack in San Francisco at bwomack1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net
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